


Fix It In Post

by innocentlies_archivist



Category: Jossverse RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-08
Updated: 2005-08-08
Packaged: 2018-05-17 19:58:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5883628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/innocentlies_archivist/pseuds/innocentlies_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexis charmed them all, but Joss most of all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fix It In Post

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Versaphile, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Innocent Lies](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Innocent_Lies). Deciding that it needed to have a more long-term home, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in January 2016. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact the e-mail address on [Innocent Lies collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/innocentlies/profile).

Joss thinks Aly fell in love with Alexis while they were filming three-fourteen. Of course, he came onto the set and charmed everyone. He'd charmed Marti and Amy and Jennifer and Anya at auditions. "Do-able?" he'd asked Marti, and she'd said, "Joss, you're going to have to turn down the sex appeal on this one. Way down. Unless you want the fans whining about why you're so meeeaan to the hot new Watcher."

"So a big no on the Alexis sex then. But a big yes on Alexis?"

"Biggest," Marti had said, and that was that.

So Alexis had said, "Comedy, then?"

"Lowest of the low farce," Joss told him. "I'm not talking lots of depth here. More, in-your-face arrogance, fall-on-your-face slapstick, that kind of thing."

"No depth? No angst? No deep childhood trauma?"

"Alexis, the show's called _Buffy: the Vampire Slayer_. What did you expect?"

Alexis was doing something obscene with a tootsie roll while Seth and Aly watched, dangling out of their chairs like their stardom could no longer be contained in his little warehouse. Far away, someone was moving a set around, and upstairs and downstairs his minions--his writers--were writing the next episodes for him. But Aly and Seth were watching Alexis mold tootsie rolls into something else altogether, and Joss felt fatherly when he wandered towards them, going to say something like, "So we've learned our scripts, have we?"

But Aly just gestured at the seat across from her, an actress's gesture, broad and unmistakable, and giggled, a more mature giggle than Willow's, but still unmistakably young. Alexis was only two years younger than Joss, and something about the easy grace with which he made a fool of himself reminded Joss of high school.

_If Joss Whedon had had just one good day of high school, none of us would be here._

Just one good day of high school. Just one glance from the beautiful people, from the Cordelias and Larrys and Harmonys, and he wouldn't be sitting at a table with three of the absolute most beautiful people in California, eating gummy worms with mouths wide open, laughing broadly and widely and trying to touch tongues to noses. One good day of high school, and he wouldn't be working hard on a script that would blow high school to smithereens. It would be the biggest explosion Torrance had ever seen.

Just one good day of high school.

Well, he didn't have that. He had a chronicle of his lonely high school existence in the life of Xander Harris; Nicky was their whipping boy (metaphorically speaking), all of them, who never knew the touch of a pretty person's hand. Aly and Seth and Alexis had always been the pretty people. Alexis could fall down a lot and get the big guffaws, could already make Aly laugh so hard she choked on gummy worm-bits. Joss was funny, but not like Alexis was funny.

"Joss, I've decided. Next year, Willow is going to fall in love with Buffy's sexy new Watcher, and you can have yet more underage sex on screen. How would that be?"

Joss didn't mention that Willow might be going gay next season. For one thing, he didn't want to let Aly know that before the contract renegotiation, and for another, he didn't want to talk about Seth leaving with Seth there because he was afraid he might start throwing things again. Seth hadn't said anything yet, not officially. Just chatted about it with Joss, mentioned greener pastures. Joss wished him the very best of luck. Joss felt like a left lover. Left lover, leftover, something left behind.

Aly tugged on Alexis's sleeve, wanting to show him something out in the backlot, which was ridiculous, because there was nothing out there except a graveyard, which, since Alexis had seen the show at least once, wouldn't be news to him. Aly was becoming more transparent each day, and Joss wondered whether portraying a high school student every day took its toll on you the way writing them did. Joss had more than once wondered if he were back at high school himself, before a timely crisis had taken him out of the writing space and reminded him, adult now. He could now make the popular kids do whatever he wanted. He could make richer-than-Bill-Gates Cordelia Chase into a pauper and no one could stop him because this was _his_ version of high school. He liked it much better than the other version.

But at some moment during that first afternoon with Alexis on set, Joss realized that yes, he was really still that kid named Josh, only spelled funny. About half the fanmail he got was addressed to Josh Whedon, and Joss imagined that Josh Whedon was a good foot taller than him, probably a better writer too, and prettier, and obviously had a larger fanbase. It was weirdly repellent to be envious of his own alter ego.

And Joss knows the fans fell in love with Alexis after his first appearance on _Angel_. "The spin-off," they were still calling it. "Why don't we put Alexis's character on the spin-off," he'd asked during a lunch break. "To replace Glenn?"

He'd been at the B:tVS studios that day, eating with some of the co-pros. Aly had wandered past and her ears had perked up at the name "Alexis." "I think it's a swell idea," she said. "He's great to work with."

Joss bit down the dirty joke that immediately occurred to him. Aly had had it bad for Alexis all the previous year; it wasn't fair to Alyson to tease her about it. Tempting, but not really professional. Joss had made it his goal for the year to be a consummate professional, like his cast. Alexis was an inspiration to all of them.

The letters from the fans after "Parting Gifts" had revealed mixed opinions. Of course, any replacement for Doyle would be subject to the hatred of at least half the nation (well, at least those members of the nation who were watching the spin-off, who were the only true patriots in Joss's mind), but there was a surprising amount of positive feedback as well.

About three episodes in, when they played the Tragic Backstory card (they had had a long talk about that one, in Joss's office, door closed. He'd explained that he wasn't sure where they were going, but it would probably be dark. "Would you like to be dark, Alexis?"

"Would I still get to fall down?"

"Sure. But you'd have to do it in a depressed manner, and then brood about it afterwards. It would be very serious falling down."

Alexis favored Joss with the smile that was quickly winning the female fans' hearts, and Joss felt his heart melt a little. He gave the heads up to the writer, and Wesley's fate was pretty much sealed at that point), the fan letters were almost as numerous and their content as varied as the response that had started pouring in asking when Willow and Tara were going to actually get to kiss.

It was an exciting year at Mutant Enemy.

Joss himself didn't fall in love with Alexis until he watched the dailies from three-thirteen. High farce, tragicomic, doomed romance... he'd written it and it still moved him. Damn, but Alexis was a good actor.

There was more to it than that. There was Aly, and Alexis's relationship with her, the tabloid sensation they made. There were the rest of the cast and crew, and Charisma's impending marriage, and the feeling of chivalry in the air as they finally rewarded their viewing audience with the sexy subplots they'd been promising for years with the subtext.

The romance made Joss feel old, although he was still only two years older than Alexis. He felt ancient, used up, drained. Getting both his shows renewed really didn't help matters.

But watching the dailies of "Waiting in the Wings." That was when he realized that he loved Alexis, though he couldn't articulate the wherefores or the whys, couldn't have told you how long it had been since he'd looked at another man like that.

His head gave a little thud of hopelessness, and he felt waves of high school nausea demanding his attention. He was actually going to throw up, wasn't he? The sight of Alexis in tights -- that just made him laugh. And knowing about the highbrow teasing between Amy and Alexis before the kiss ruined any joy he might have derived from that... no, it wasn't about the show. It wasn't about _Angel_. It was about Alexis, and Joss started to wonder whether it hadn't been about Alexis from the beginning.

He didn't bother to be upset about it; it would have been unprofessional and undignified but, more importantly, it would have been embarrassing. So he let it go, peacefully, through contract negotiations, through the engagement and wedding, through the honeymoon, through it all. He stood by Alexis's side at the hundredth episode party and smiled as widely as he ever had.

He didn't cry until the last day of filming. Not at Wesley's death, though damn, but Alexis and Amy could _act_ , and not at the last shot, which they didn't film last (he couldn't have borne it, and neither could his actors), but at Alexis tossing his jacket around his shoulders and saying, "Bye, then."

Half an hour later, Joss is sitting in his office, and has called Lisa to tell her that she should take care of the dailies and that no, he doesn't want to see the second unit footage. He says goodbye curtly to Dave, who's rounding up props to sell on E-Bay, but he waits till Andy slips into his office and offers him a full bottle of Bushmills before he cries.

In the maudlin despair of the last glass of liquor, the last night of filming, the last night before they go post on the last episode, Joss wonders if he didn't fall in love with Alexis while they were filming _Buffy_ three-fourteen.

  
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.


End file.
